According to the Number 10 website (and if they don’t know, who does), here are the new Liberal Democrat peers:
Working peers list
* Floella Benjamin OBE DL – actor, presenter and campaigner for children’s issues
* Mike German OBE AM – former Deputy First Minister (Wales)
* Meral Hussein Ece OBE – Local Government Councillor in Islington, advocate of equality issues
* Sir Kenneth (Ken) Macdonald QC – former Director of Public Prosecutions
* Kathryn (Kate) Jane Parminter – former Chief Executive of Campaign to Protect Rural England
* John Shipley OBE – leading Local Government Councillor in Newcastle upon Tyne
Dissolution list
* Richard Allan – former MP for Sheffield Hallam and Chair of the Information Select Committee
* Matthew Owen John Taylor – former MP for Truro and St Austell, Chair of National Housing Federation
* George Philip (Phil) Willis – former MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, Former Chair of Science and Technology Select Committee
Notable enoblements from the (much longer) Labour lists include Paul Boateng, Jack McConnell and John Prescott. Michael Howard makes it upstairs on the Conservative list and, a relief to one and all, Ian Paisley will be singing from the DUP hymnsheet in the Lords.
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10 Comments
as if there wasn’t enough peers already.. :-/
We should be reducing the number of peers, not making more.
I’d be careful about calling for a reduction in the number of peers, it sounds like you are advocating a cull.
It would be nice if ANY of them came off the interim peers list. An appalling result for democracy
So, with reform of the Upper House in mind, you’re just going to stuff it full of more cronies?????
Who are the Liberal Democrats these days? The only reason I ask is because, as a supporter and former member, it seems to me that you’ve just become a vehicle for David Cameron to implement his right-wing plans and privatise the nation.
I would cull.. the political appointees (of all parties) and the hereditary ones.
I agree with Grace.
We all want an elected House of Lords. In the interim, appointing people is undemocratic so we have a system within the Party to inject some democracy into the process by elected a panel from which the Leader must pick interim peers.
Nick has ignored this and, in addition to the dissolution honours, which he’s allowed to choose himself from ex-MPs, picked 6 working peers NONE of whom were on the list democratically elected by the Party. Where are Viv Bingham, Duncan Brack, Jonathan Fryer, Jo Hayes, Gordon Lishman, Justine McGuinness, Brian Paddick, Jackie Pearcey, and Julie Smith to name just a selection?
I stand slightly corrected that Merel and Kate remain on the interim peers list from the previous set of elections, but only 2 out of 6 is still dreadful!
There will be more to follow. I note Gordon Brown has nominated 29 new Labour peers – really stuffing the Lords and biasing the numbers. Ah well when Nick Clegg gets to grips with this the numbers and the balance and the election system will all change…
Culverin – re-join & get involved – i know its easier to sit on the side lines & complain – Government is going to be very difficult & of course niether Party will get all they want – they are separted Parties – but this will be the future of Politics in this country – as it is in most multi Party real Democrat systems.
https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=%2bRxTPSXO&id=C8344A2D65321B54B20A4EC7331A8F9E6340A6FE&thid=OIP.-RxTPSXOQj8mMYJrZBtiFQEsC0&q=viv+bingham&simid=608014315148935361&selectedIndex=0&qpvt=viv+bingham&ajaxhist=0
At a meeting of the Council for the Regions in England Viv Bingham told us about a bye-election in Merseyside where his role was to ensure that we scored higher than David Owen’s residual version of what had been the SDP, known as SDP2. He succeeded, but so did the Monster Raving Loony Party, which caused much amusement. The ghost-written autobiography of self-employed window-cleaner David Sutch states that he had contested more by-elections than Bill Boaks. http://london-rip.com/places/bill-boakes.
Former rock star and Rolls-Royce owner Lord Sutch (not gazetted) was once asked whether he would be standing in the Ribble Valley bye-election. He did, and commented that he found nothing but Tories who said they were going to vote Liberal Democrat, which they did.
Times journalist Daniel Finkelstein (page 25, 17/52017) provides a partial report. He does not mention Dr David Owen, his party leader, who was given a peerage after he told readers of the Mail on Sunday to vote Conservative in many constituencies while himself voting for us against a hard left Labour candidate in Limehouse whom he disliked. Nor does he mention that the SDP voted at a special conference to merge with the Liberal Party. Nor does he mention that David Sainsbury withdrew the funding needed to get leaflets delivered.
Finkelstein is right to remind us that the Tories voted against the creation of the National Health Service. He forecasts that Labour’s 2017 manifesto will be remembered similarly. Daniel Finkelstein uses statisticians to report on football, but not on politics. Pity. Polled individually Labour’s policies are apparently popular, but do their poll ratings add up? What is 60% plus 60%, etc?